Sunday, March 15, 2015

Nagaland mob lynching: totally unacceptable act of public violence.

A very disturbing even happened few days back in Nagaland. Angry mob of around 7 or 8 thousand people attacked Dimapur Central Jail, they dragged a rape accused out of jail, paraded that person naked and then beat him to death. Many people participated and witnessed this mob lynching incident. Many were also seen recording this ugly event or taking photo of dead person may be to post it on social media. The mob didn't stop after killing that accused they also displayed his body at the local clock tower supposedly to teach a lesson for all people who commit such type of crimes. Many people shared this incident with the gruesome photos to justify the punishment offered to this accused and demanded that only if this type of punishments are offered to people committing crimes like rape such type of crimes will reduce. I have seen many people advocating punishments like public hanging or public torture to death as a way of teaching a lesson to criminals, they all feel that such punishments will serve as deterrent and stop such crimes.

Frustrated and misguided people taking law into their own hands is always a dangerous sign for any society. Lawless society is a dangerous prospectus and there are so many reasons why any society might choose to use such desperate means. In India ridiculously lengthy and slow process of delivering justice in each and every case is one of the major reasons why such type of incidents happen. I guess everyone will agree that heinous crimes like rape, murder, etc. need speedy trials and strict punishments so that it can create a fear in minds of perpetrators of such crimes. Slow and tedious process of justice with many loopholes which allows criminals to escape the law or delay the process indefinitely puts victim at very disadvantageous position. Victims of rape specially suffer long and agonizing journey to get justice from such severely impaired judiciary system of India and I want to include investigating agencies also in this. We all know that justice delayed means justice denied and when it becomes chronic problem people start loosing their faith on the system. Unfortunately none of the state or national governments tried to do anything substantial to correct this problem. Judicial or police reforms are not even a discussion topic during any state or national elections. Sexual violence is such a serious issue but it hardly gets any attention it deserves in any political or social forum in India. Everyone knows that rapes happen very frequently and many rapist from every strata of society escape the law using muscle, power, money or influence. This problem is not going to disappear on its own, there is no point in pushing the issue under carpet. It is also wrong to assume that this is only a women's issue. Sexual violence is as much a men's issue as it is women's.

Any incident like this is a result of serious failure of government machinery at various levels. I don't think that any such violent act can be justified by using any logic or reasoning, it is totally unacceptable behaviour. There are dedicated departments and well designed systems to deliver justice and execute punishments. I hope this acts as an eye opener for all concerned agencies dealing with law and order of country and states in India. They need to create sense of belief in people's mind that justice and investigating machinery is fair and efficient. They need to provide proof by their actions that these systems are working for people to solve their issues and problems not to exploit their helplessness. If victims of any crime get all required support from all these departments they won't be at the mercy of mob to protest or demand justice for them. Why these departments only get active after huge protests or nationwide outrage after any rape or murder? Why some case gets really shoddy handling which results in acquittal of all accused just because they belong to some powerful or influential families? Such incidents create serious dent in credibility of all these departments and create fertile ground for violent and desperate reactions from people. Let's hope that this incident doesn't inspire people from other places to use similar methods to deliver their own justice, it this happens it will be catastrophic situation at every level.